A young woman whose body was found in the backcountry of California’s Big Sur with suspicious marks on her face and neck died of alcohol withdrawal, the Monterey county sheriff’s office said on Thursday.
The discovery of Joanna Ruth Shields’ body in April had driven widespread suspicion that she had been the victim of a violent attack. A group of hikers found Shields, 37, naked in a pool of water in the Sykes hot springs area of the Ventana wilderness with marks on her neck and a cut across her forehead.
